Introduction

Levels of educational attainment have increased rapidly in most developing countries since the 1950s (Schultz, 1988).

Although Mexico also benefited from that development, there was a significant lag in its educational indicators. Londoño (1996), for example, points to an “education deficit,” according to which Latin American countries in general, and Mexico in particular, have approximately two years less education than would be expected for their level of development.

Elías (1992) finds that education was the most important source of improvement in the quality of labor in Latin America between 1950 and 1970, although such improvements did not take place to the same extent in Mexico as in other countries in the region.

This changed dramatically in the 1980s. Mexico’s educational attainment increased steadily after the 1970s, it remained below the international trend line.

The closure of Mexico’s education gap vis-à-vis the rest of the world was hastened in part by the country’s economic stagnation. Mexico’s real GDP per capita in the mid-1990s was roughly the same as it had been in the first half of the 1980s.

Nevertheless, this should not detract from the remarkable increase in schooling that occurred during the 1980s. While the level of average schooling in Mexico increased by roughly a year per decade during 1960–80 (from 2.76 to 4.77 years), it increased by two years in the decade of the 1980s.

This acceleration in schooling was the product of concerted efforts to increase the coverage of basic education, combined with advances made in the reduction of primary school repetition and dropout rates.

According to the website LupaCiudadana it has registered more than 14,462,500 on elementary level and 6,093,800 on Secundary (Jr. High School), at a cost of 180 dls per laptop it will hold an estimate 3'700,134,000 USD. S.E.P. for this year it has around 321,750,782 USD.

Acording to the legislative chamber it holds the current conference regarding Enciclomedia. The article cites:

Education

Education Growth

Education expenditures have been growing in real terms at a rate of 3.4 percent a year on average. The three levels of government increased education expenditures from 2004 Mx$10,600 per student in 1992 to Mx$15,500 per student in 2004. During the 1994 crisis, there was a substantial drop in spending, and the share financed by states has been increasing over time, while the municipal share has remained very small.

The bulk of education spending is budgeted and distributed “inertially,” based on the stock of physical capital and employees belonging to the federal system before decentralization. This allocation does not consider the demand of clients, the productivity of suppliers, or poverty (World Bank 2004a, 2002; Merino 2003; OECD 2005b). Also, this allocation does not satisfy the compensatory objectives established by the National Agreement for the Modernization of Basic Education (Esquivel, 1999).

Despite greater transparency in the allocation of resources through FAEB, marked differences among states persist in the proportion of federally financed transfers and the state’s own resources spent on basic education. State resources as a proportion of total public spending on basic education. On average, states contribute 22.5 percent of total public spending on basic education apart from the funds obtained from federal transfer through FAEB, FAM, and FAETA. However, differences among states in this regard remain huge. While states like Baja California and Estado de Mexico contribute more than 40 percent of basic education expenditures, several other states contribute less than 10 percent.

Education Challenges

Even though the levels of educational attainment expanded very rapidly, Mexico experienced a pronounced increase in the degree of inequality over the 1980s and mid- 1990s. Most of the deterioration in the distribution of income happened in the middle to late 1980s (1984–89). The early 1990s displayed little change in total current income inequality except for a slight trend toward deterioration.

The trends in the distribution of earnings differ from the trends in the distribution of current income in two ways. First, the gains are not limited to the richest 10 percent, as those in the seven-, eight-, and nine- tenths of the distribution improved their relative earnings over the period by almost 2 percentage points. Second, the distribution of earnings clearly worsened in the 1990s until 1996, although the inequality associated with total current income was moderately stable in the 1990s, displaying an improvement after 1996. Differences in the behavior of total current income and labor earnings inequalities from 1994 to 1996 support the idea that the poor, who rely the most on labor as a source of income, are the least able to protect themselves during a recession.

Education is a key variable for our understanding of income and earnings inequality in Mexico. Education is by far the variable that accounts for the largest share of earnings inequality in Mexico, in terms of both its gross and its marginal contribution. The marginal contribution of education to the explanation of inequality in Mexico is almost equal to the joint contribution of other relevant variables such as age, economic sector, labor market status and hours worked.

It is worth pointing out that the difference between the gross and marginal contributions has been increasing over time, indicating that, as the economy progresses, education becomes even more important in determining the choices of sectors and occupations. That is, the workers’ skills are becoming increasingly relevant in determining their type of participation in the labor market as well as their position across different economic segments of the economy. The contribution of education to income inequality in Mexico is the second highest in Latin America, next only to Brazil. Moreover, what seems to be particularly interesting in the Mexican experience is that the significance of education has been increasing over time.

The contribution of relevant variables to changes in inequality for different intervals of time shows the following facts.

First, education has the highest gross contribution in explaining changes in earnings distribution.

Second, both changes in the distribution of education and in the relative earnings among educational groups have always been in phase with the alterations in the earnings distribution. Specifically, when the income profile effect related to education became steeper and the inequality of education increased, the earnings distribution worsened (as in the 1988-1996 period).

Third, changes in the relative earnings among educational groups are always the leading force behind changes in inequality.

Educational Innovation Projects

Ukini Open Knowledge Initiative to leverage the digital divide in Mexican Education System

Enciclomedia

Enciclomedia is a public education system which consist on a database of didactical content based on the free text books distributed for elementary level students of 5th and 6th grade. Through a computer an electronic dashboard and a protector, teachers and students have access in classrooms to the following material:

the free text books

Teachers site with the development of the class

Files

Professional development

Trash can

Enciclomedia pretends push IT in the public educational space at a current cost of 601,215,446.26 USD.

Telesecundarias

Telesecundaria is a Televsion based system of distance education programs for secondary and high school students created by the government of Mexico in 1968 and available in rural areas of the country as well as Central America, South America, Canada and the United States via satellite (Solidaridad 1 and Satmex 5).

The project broadcasts more than 4,000 programs on a dedicated tv network available from satellite dish and a television. Currently more than 16,000 rural locations serve nearly one million students.

The rapid expansion of the telesecundaria system is worrisome; although it has helped to improve access to school for the rural poor and accounts for 20 percent of total lower‐secondary enrollment (and a much higher share in rural areas), students in the telesecundaria have recorded low levels of achievement. Despite important institutional limitations in the decentralization process, local innovations have helped both rich and less wealthy states, improve their basic education systems. States that follow this pattern include Aguascalientes, Colima,3 Nuevo León, and Quintana Roo.

The first three states plus the Distrito Federal rank at the top of the PISA scale, while the last state is around the national average. These states are working to improve learning achievement on several fronts, taking initiatives such as improving pedagogy practices, evaluation, and the hiring of teachers. In addition, some federal educational programs are stimulating discussion about how to improve school management and learning achievement.

The start of a project in Nayarit for Indigenous Communities (Huicholes, Coras and Tepehuanos). Laptops given to the kids during August 2011. A great example of connectivity (Solar, electricity & Satelital Internet) in distant regions.

A project in San Luis Potosi lead by the Minister of Indigenous Education in the State. No information has been provided on the specific date when XO's were given to the kids in the State . Sugestions have been made by OLPC but limited response from the leaders. Teachers in the State have translated Sugar to their mother language Téenek.

Some ~10k were deployed, others were given by Mexico to Central American countries along with other aid. Limited data available on those deployments., A donation by Procter & Gamble Mexico. A project lead by P&G, UNETE & Fundación Pro-Mazahuas., The start of a project in Nayarit for Indigenous Communities (Huicholes, Coras and Tepehuanos). Laptops given to the kids during August 2011. A great example of connectivity (Solar, electricity & Satelital Internet) in distant regions., A project in San Luis Potosi lead by the M … A project in San Luis Potosi lead by the Minister of Indigenous Education in the State. No information has been provided on the specific date when XO's were given to the kids in the State . Sugestions have been made by OLPC but limited response from the leaders. Teachers in the State have translated Sugar to their mother language Téenek. ted Sugar to their mother language Téenek., and The start of a 350K-student deployment in the state of Sonora.